Spoon!

Amy is learning to eat by herself. We're transitioning from feeding her baby mush from a spoon to eating more solid finger foods. She has started rejecting baby food and insists on feeding herself or trying to eat what we're eating. Some things though, are not finger foods. 

Oatmeal is not a finger food. 

She is so proud of herself. She's a complete mess, but we're proud of her too.

Last night she ate gnocchi and zucchini slices and a piece of bread at dinner. She ate no baby food at all. What a big girl!

Little Lady

We've been having a lot of internet problems. It's been getting steadily worse for probably a year. Finally, we called the cable company to let them know we've had enough. They sent out a repair guy yesterday which happened to be my day home with Amy. I answered the door holding the baby. I wasn't flustered, I wasn't stressed. Apparently, a woman at home on a weekday triggered the "little lady" response in this guy. He became a close-talking, simple word using, patronizing jerk. He explained my internet problems to me in language a kindergartner would be insulted by. As he tracked mud onto my floor and unplugged my fishtank, he told me that my husband had paid for really fast internet and he would surely be happy with me if I allowed a GIANT accelerator box to be installed in the middle of the wall in the dining room. Would I like to have a channel card so I could discuss expanding our service with my husband when he got home? Look at all the sports channels, wink!
 For all he knew I could have been a single mother with no husband reviewing my decisions. For all he knew, I could have been a professional archaeologist who was home for the day.
For him, I looked the part. I had Amy in a cute dress. The vacuum cleaner was out. I was baking bread and folding laundry. There was no man at home. He made assumptions and treated me accordingly.
I have no problem with people clearly explaining what they're doing. I also have no problem with the suggestion that Rob and I would discuss cable decisions together. My problem with this guy was his tone, his automatic assumption that because I was home, I was incapable. His high pitched voice meant for children and damsels in distress. I see people treat my mom this same way in computer stores. They look at her and see a tiny, pretty woman and not a technological badass.
These are the last vestiges of an era we no longer live in. My grandmothers stayed home because women with children stayed home, regardless of their aptitude for domestic tasks (mine were awesome, of course). Our moms' generation fought for the right to be taken seriously in the workplace. Those that stayed home suffered condescension and derision from those that went to work. Those that went to work suffered the workload of a professional and a traditional mother, or worse, felt pressured into not having families at all.
Amy and I have been given this gift by our foremothers: we can legitimately choose where and how to apply our efforts and skills. We can choose a career or family or, most importantly, BOTH. When I am home, I give all my effort and attention and maternal skill to Amy, Rob, and our home. When I am at work, I am equally focused and determined. This is our family's arrangement, and this is our right.
The modern woman lives in a complex and compartmentalized life. It is no longer appropriate to treat any woman like a lesser participant. We do not need or appreciate the old-fashioned assumptions of people that choose to view us as helpless. The challenge for modern cable repair men is to differentiate between kindness and condescension. I believe that the generation of women before me sacrificed being treated gently and kindly for power. My generation will bake your cookies and manage the company in full partnership with the men in our lives who are also holding the baby or earning the paycheck. That is freedom. That is modernity.

Blooper reel

Here are a few more pictures from our trip. Just in case you were confusing us for a group of traveling models, or you were thinking of hiring us for an RV commercial, you should probably check out the following outtakes:

 I looked awesome the whole time, natch.

Missing the Mays

I was going to keep posting vacation pictures, but I think that this one really sums it up. 

Family is the best.

George and Amy do Utah

Here's a few more pictures of our RV trip. These are all of the cousins...getting along with each other.

"Stop it!"                                                        "I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!"

Are you guys watching her? Make her cut it out.  (still not touching you!)

Aw. Well, this is kinda nice. 

Are you still sleeping? Why are you sleeping? GET UP! 

"Look George, I've got two cups. We can fill them with sand together."   "Om nom nom"

Trip photos

 I have so many pictures to share of the whole trip, I think we should just go with one day or one location at a time. So, here we go with the Griswald family's Grand Canyon vacation pics, take 1:

Here are the Mays at our first overlook near the new visitors' center. George was having fun, we promise.

Here Rob and Amy are discussing creationism. They can hardly believe all this was carved in only a few thousand years. 

Amy says "Get rid of these bars people, I want to go down there!"

Amy and George are the Law in these parts

Cowboy hats required. 

Dad, would you still love me if I walked like this all the time? Yes baby, we would.

Road Trip!!!

The Mays came to visit us and we had an awesome time. We knew we wanted to have a little adventure, but with the additions to our families in the last year, the car situation was a bit tight. We figured we would rent a car and go see some sights around the southwest, but then a genius idea was born...

RV CAMPING!!!!!!!!!!!!

We rented a 25' camper from Cruise America. I think both families were totally happy with our decision. It had a big bed over the cab, a full bed in the back, and a little transformer kitchen table that turned into a  tiny bed. It was the perfect size for the size of us. We had a ton of baby paraphernalia and two big car seats and a ton of clothes and gear, but we still managed not to step on eachother or get really crowded. At meal times it was a little cramped, but as long as one or two people were hanging out outside, no problems at all. 

We think that RV camping actually was an economical choice. We took our hotel with us everywhere and we were able to eat our meals on the road, wherever we wanted. Here's captain Patrick at one of our lunch stops north of Flagstaff. Not bad, huh?

 

Here's lieutenant George supervising activities in Zion National Park.  "Let's go hiking, Dad! Mom, How's about putting me in that chair and feeding me more!!! Where's my cousin? I'd like to hug her."

I think these two had more fun than anybody. Here they are in the "upstairs" portion of the RV. I'm pretty sure they were working on using that little roof window as an escape hatch. "Hey George, wanna sneak out for some milk?" 

We've decided to make this an annual trip. Maybe Yellowstone? Yosemite? It will be a great way to keep our little munchkins in touch with eachother. It was so nice to spend good time with Patrick and Courtney too. It was like a good chill visit rolled in with an adventure. We all have so many more pictures to share, they will have to come in future posts/emails. But we're back, the laundry is clean, the Mays are on a plane, and we're already looking at maps for next fall. :)

Day with Daddy

Whoa. Looks like Blogger is going to let me post GIANT pictures now. Cool! 

Here are some pictures of Rob and Amy's day. We've been spending the mornings outside more and more. The weather has been perfect and it's nice to spend a little time in the new garden. The baby loves it of course. She was well trained at field school and now she knows all about getting filthy. Here she's in the bed with all the lettuce in it, digging a new area that we scattered some seeds in. Maybe this will mean no more slimy bags of rotten lettuce in the fridge. Maybe...

This is from right before bedtime. I guess she's taking the ship into port. Night night rocket ship. 

Hallo

My name is Inigo Montoya.

I live in the new garden bed.

I don't mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?

I am looking for the orange tabby that did this. I must avenge my missing tail. Prepare to die!

Garden

This weekend Rob put together a very cool set of raised garden beds. He put them in the side yard where they will get full noon sun, but will be shaded to the south and the west by the fence and will get dappled late afternoon light filtered through the Palo Verde tree. It's funny to plant a garden thinking about where your plants will get the least amount of sunlight, but I'm pretty sure the only thing we could grow in the middle of the yard is toast.

It's September, so we shouldn't plant anything like tomatoes, but it's also Tucson, so we can grow a lot of things that would be in danger of frost in other places. Being archaeologists, we talk about people's crops and how they were able to get such and such a yield out of their fields per year that would feed x amount of people, blah blah, but it's good to actually grow something ourselves. Yes, we know the Hohokam probably grew two or maybe even three corn crops a year, but does that mean our corn will grow in the backyard in September? No idea (wanna take bets?)

I was leading a tour of a site once and this very very old guy came up to me afterwards and said, "you know, I'd believe you archaeologists more if any of you had ever hunted anything or grown anything". Touche, dude. So we're living off the land here in Joneslandia. Rob went dove hunting last weekend in Havasu with Ashley's dad and now we're growing a little food. Hopefully. We planted mostly greens so far. Collared greens, spinach, and something called buttercrisp lettuce. Lettuce plus butter? Yes please! We also put in some garlic and some cilantro. We've got some peas, corn, peppers (bell and hot), and more herbs getting their grow on in the kitchen. I don't think I've ever started anything from seed other than butter beans (mmm butter) in elementary school, but they worked out okay, so we're giving it a shot. Heck, as long as I don't push the seedlings off the porch, everything should be fine.

So, wish us luck. If in three to six weeks you hear a knock at your door and find no one there but a basket of kale, you'll know the garden is in bloom and we're off somewhere eating chips.

Monsoons are back

After missing downtown Tucson again and again, the monsoon finally gave us two direct hits on Friday and Saturday. Wow! I'd forgotten how strong these storms can be. It was warm in the afternoon and then around 4 it started getting breezy and overcast. By 5 it was raining. By 6, we were a little worried the roof might blow off.

We were out driving to the store, but turned around and came home when the streets started to get a little too deep and the "booooodeeeebooop!" came on the radio and told us there were tornado watches and 60-70 mph winds.

These are the pictures of the yard just after we got back.

The water got deeper than this and we had some hail, but you can already see the rain lapping against the steps. It filled the yard and at one stage it was flowing past in little waves.

First step under water

What became of Amy's rock piles? Poor thing, we will have to survey the damage in the daylight. All is well now. The rain has stopped, we have our power back, and it is a gorgeous 63 degrees outside. Perfect crisp air for sleeping.

This is a picture from Friday's storms. I was practicing with my new camera after the rain had mostly stopped. This is a 4 second exposure looking into the storm cloud. Really, it was around 9 pm and totally dark. The purple light behind the clouds that looks like sunshine is lightning. It's kind of cool to see how well lit the street was. Next time, I'll try not to get powerlines smack in the middle of the shot. I couldn't even see them when I set up the tripod on the sidewalk, but they sure show up well with the lightning.

Anyway, happy monsoon! Here's hoping for another 2 inches tomorrow!

Mistress Mudbuckets

Rob was out watering the garden this morning and Amy decided to join him. He squirted her toes with the hose. She gave him a *look* so he did it again. She got all excited and it. was. on.

Total squirt fest ensued; she ran over and climbed into her pool all by herself. Rob gave her the hose and this is what happened.

All that cloth around her waist is the pretty dress and bloomers I had dressed her in about a minute before we went outside.

One Two Three!!!

Amy doesn't watch Sesame Street but that doesn't mean she can't have a favorite muppet.

She's saying "Ah. ah. ah" As in "Von, Two, Three! Three dirty diapers Ah Ah Ah".

She does this all the time now. It's making her counting books pretty darn funny.

Not ashamed

I bought instant coffee. And it was decaf.

.

.

.

Still with me?

It was for a good cause. I'm making grande iced mochas, baby! I spend way too much of my allowance on Starbucks every month, so I thought I'd try to make my drink at home. That way I can drink even MORE chocolate and coffee. yumyumyumyumyum

I bought the instant coffee for a couple of reasons. 1. Grandma drinks it. If Grandma drinks it, that's good enough for me. 2. Starbucks sells it. Really, Starbucks? really? Just 'cause you call it "via" doesn't mean we don't know it's coffee crystals, yo. 3. I thought instant coffee would be easy to dissolve cold. Cold mixin' = faster mochas.

I mixed a teaspoon of decaf folgers into a glass of milk. I used whole milk because that's what we had and because it tastes awesome all by itself. Then I squirted in a healthy blob of chocolate syrup and mixed it up. I added ice cubes and voila! A totally delicious iced mocha whenever I want. It really was good and I think measures up to the original drink pretty well. You don't get any fun coffee shop atmosphere and no whipped cream or straw, but there are unlimited refills.

Now, if I can only figure out how to bake that magical coffee cake...

Starship Jones

Doo dee doo. I was making some food this afternoon and I reached over for some paper towels to wipe up a spill.

Wha? What's this? All the paper towels are there, but without their roll. They're just a loose roll of paper, no cardboard. Hmmmm. Who could be behind this caper?

This probably has something to do with it.

A cardboard baby cruiser!!

Here it is being piloted by Amy and steered by Rob.

Birthday!!

Today is my birthday and I am 32. Patrick is 32 minus 27 minutes. In 27 minutes, he'll find out how awesome being my age is.

This morning we went to Chic fil A for chicken biscuits that were FREE! Yay! Even Amy tried one out. We shredded up a mini biscuit and a chicken nugget and she ate the whole thing. Not so good for her, maybe, but she liked it and she ate it well.

Today the high is 101. That seems like a really really high temperature and I know I should be pissed about it, but somehow it feels different today. For one thing, I doubt it will actually hit 101 (more like 98 or something). But it's also my birthday. My birthday has always seemed to be a transition for the weather as well as a transition to a new age. Back in Georgia, September 6th is still plenty hot, but you can juuuuust start to think about needing sleeves at night. The pool is just a little too cold to swim in all day. It took a long time to adjust to the climate here, but now I'm noticing the same thing about my birthday in Tucson. Today, even though the temperature is enough to make you consider a move to northern Michigan, the light has changed. The smell has changed. Summer is dying at last and soon fall will be here. It's even cloudy and raining (thunder a minute ago!). From the safety of the AC you could pretend to need the new school jeans, or appreciate the ubiquity of pumpkin flavored food that seems to be popping up everywhere. Soon, we can turn the cooler down to "low" and after that we might even consider eating soup.

I've always thought of my birthday as being in the Fall, and maybe this is why. I LOVE the fall and I love the promise of cooler weather and more time outside (and football???). My birthday is the end of the ordeal of summer. I made it. It was tough. I bitched a lot. I learned a little. Now it's time to really buckle down into a new semester, a new school year, a new age. Ahhh.

Here's to birthdays!

The end of being 31 and the beginning of being 32!

Road Trip!!!

The Joneses took off this weekend for a visit to Lake Havasu City to see Auntie Ashley and her parents. We are having an amazing time already. Mr. and Mrs. Blythe are great hosts.

Amy slept for most of the ride, but she woke up when we turned north off of the highway. She wasn't super happy to be strapped in the backseat by herself, so we took turns sitting back there with her and playing and singing.

And then she ate some baby food. Like a lady...

Nancy and Amy entertained us before dinner with some music of their own composition. They made an excellent duet, until Amy starting playing the piano with her knees. I don't think Liam's piano teacher would call that proper technique.

This morning, Amy was helping Ashley rearrange her suitcase. Everything got pulled out and then very carefully put back in. Well, almost everything. Amy found this plaid shirt and decided it was her style. She looks just like Ashley!

Here she is learning to cook. Ashley taught her to sniff the bowl to see if her cake was good.

Then you feed other people and say "mmmmmm!"

...and of course there were books.